Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 vs Intel Core i7-7500U

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 CPU1 vs CPU2 Intel Core i7-7500U
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 Intel Core i7-7500U

CPU comparison

Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 or Intel Core i7-7500U - which processor is faster? In this comparison we look at the differences and analyze which of these two CPUs is better. We compare the technical data and benchmark results.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.15 GHz. Up to 16 GB of memory is supported in 8 memory channels. The Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 was released in Q3/2020.

The Intel Core i7-7500U has 2 cores with 4 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.50 GHz. The CPU supports up to 32 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Intel Core i7-7500U was released in Q4/2016.
Qualcomm Snapdragon (102) Family Intel Core i7 (293)
Qualcomm Snapdragon SQ1/SQ2 (2) CPU group Intel Core i 7000U (18)
1 Generation 7
Kryo 495 Architecture Kaby Lake U
Mobile Segment Mobile
-- Predecessor Intel Core i7-6500U
-- Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 has 8 CPU cores and can calculate 8 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 is 3.15 GHz while the Intel Core i7-7500U has 2 CPU cores and 4 threads can calculate simultaneously. The clock frequency of the Intel Core i7-7500U is at 2.70 GHz (3.50 GHz).

Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 Characteristic Intel Core i7-7500U
8 Cores 2
8 Threads 4
hybrid (big.LITTLE) Core architecture normal
No Hyperthreading Yes
No Overclocking ? No
3.15 GHz
4x Kryo 495 Gold
A-Core 2.70 GHz (3.50 GHz)
2.42 GHz
4x Kryo 495 Silver
B-Core --

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Processors with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors. Algorithms for ML improve their performance the more data they have collected via software. ML tasks can be processed up to 10,000 times faster than with a classic processor.

Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 Characteristic Intel Core i7-7500U
-- AI hardware --
-- AI specifications --

Internal Graphics

The Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 or Intel Core i7-7500U has integrated graphics, called iGPU for short. The iGPU uses the system's main memory as graphics memory and sits on the processor's die.

Qualcomm Adreno 690 GPU Intel HD Graphics 620
GPU frequency 0.30 GHz
-- GPU (Turbo) 1.05 GHz
6 GPU Generation 9.5
7 nm Technology 14 nm
0 Max. displays 3
-- Compute units 24
-- Shader 192
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
-- Max. GPU Memory 32 GB
12.0 DirectX Version 12

Hardware codec support

A photo or video codec that is accelerated in hardware can greatly accelerate the working speed of a processor and extend the battery life of notebooks or smartphones when playing videos.

Qualcomm Adreno 690 GPU Intel HD Graphics 620
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec h264 Decode / Encode
Decode Codec VP9 Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec VP8 Decode / Encode
No Codec AV1 No
Decode Codec AVC Decode / Encode
Decode Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

The Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 can use up to 16 GB of memory in 8 memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is 68.3 GB/s. The Intel Core i7-7500U supports up to 32 GB of memory in 2 memory channels and achieves a memory bandwidth of up to 34.1 GB/s.

Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 Characteristic Intel Core i7-7500U
LPDDR4X-2133 Memory DDR4-2133, DDR3-1866
16 GB Max. Memory 32 GB
8 (Octa Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
68.3 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 34.1 GB/s
No ECC No
-- L2 Cache --
-- L3 Cache 4.00 MB
-- PCIe version 3.0
-- PCIe lanes 12
-- PCIe Bandwidth 11.8 GB/s

Thermal Management

The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 is --, while the Intel Core i7-7500U has a TDP of 15 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently.

Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 Characteristic Intel Core i7-7500U
-- TDP (PL1 / PBP) 15 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 is manufactured in 7 nm and has 0.00 MB cache. The Intel Core i7-7500U is manufactured in 14 nm and has a 4.00 MB cache.

Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 Characteristic Intel Core i7-7500U
7 nm Technology 14 nm
Chiplet Chip design Monolithic
Armv8-A (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) x86-64 (64 bit)
-- ISA extensions SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2
-- Socket BGA 1356
None Virtualization VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d
No AES-NI Yes
Android, Windows 10 (ARM) Operating systems Windows 10, Linux
Q3/2020 Release date Q4/2016
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


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Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
⌀ Multi core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Single-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2
8C 8T @ 3.15 GHz
793 (94%)
Intel Core i7-7500U Intel Core i7-7500U
2C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
842 (100%)

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2
8C 8T @ 3.15 GHz
3053 (100%)
Intel Core i7-7500U Intel Core i7-7500U
2C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
1826 (60%)

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The single-core benchmark only evaluates the performance of the fastest CPU core, the number of CPU cores in a processor is irrelevant here.
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2
8C 8T @ 3.15 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i7-7500U Intel Core i7-7500U
2C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
1178 (100%)

Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The multi-core benchmark evaluates the performance of all of the processor's CPU cores. Virtual thread improvements such as AMD SMT or Intel's Hyper-Threading have a positive impact on the benchmark result.
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2
8C 8T @ 3.15 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i7-7500U Intel Core i7-7500U
2C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
2274 (100%)

Cinebench R20 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R20 is the successor of Cinebench R15 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2
8C 8T @ 3.15 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i7-7500U Intel Core i7-7500U
2C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
354 (100%)

Cinebench R20 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R20 is the successor of Cinebench R15 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2
8C 8T @ 3.15 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i7-7500U Intel Core i7-7500U
2C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
739 (100%)

iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS)

The theoretical computing performance of the internal graphics unit of the processor with simple accuracy (32 bit) in GFLOPS. GFLOPS indicates how many billion floating point operations the iGPU can perform per second.
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2
Qualcomm Adreno 690 @ 0.00 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i7-7500U Intel Core i7-7500U
Intel HD Graphics 620 @ 1.05 GHz
403 (100%)

Estimated results for PassMark CPU Mark

Some of the CPUs listed below have been benchmarked by CPU-monkey. However the majority of CPUs have not been tested and the results have been estimated by a CPU-monkey’s secret proprietary formula. As such they do not accurately reflect the actual Passmark CPU mark values and are not endorsed by PassMark Software Pty Ltd.
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2
8C 8T @ 3.15 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i7-7500U Intel Core i7-7500U
2C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
3659 (100%)

Blender 2.81 (bmw27)

Blender is a free 3D graphics software for rendering (creating) 3D bodies, which can also be textured and animated in the software. The Blender benchmark creates predefined scenes and measures the time (s) required for the entire scene. The shorter the time required, the better. We selected bmw27 as the benchmark scene.
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2
8C 8T @ 3.15 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i7-7500U Intel Core i7-7500U
2C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
1327.4 (100%)

CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (Single-Core)

The CPU-Z benchmark measures a processor's performance by measuring the time it takes the system to complete all benchmark calculations. The faster the benchmark is completed, the higher the score.
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2
8C 8T @ 3.15 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i7-7500U Intel Core i7-7500U
2C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
325 (100%)

CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (Multi-Core)

The CPU-Z benchmark measures a processor's performance by measuring the time it takes the system to complete all benchmark calculations. The faster the benchmark is completed, the higher the score.
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2
8C 8T @ 3.15 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i7-7500U Intel Core i7-7500U
2C 4T @ 2.70 GHz
973 (100%)

Cinebench R15 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2
8C 8T @ 3.15 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i7-7500U Intel Core i7-7500U
2C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
149 (100%)

Cinebench R15 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2
8C 8T @ 3.15 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i7-7500U Intel Core i7-7500U
2C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
376 (100%)

Devices using this processor

Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ2 Intel Core i7-7500U
Microsoft Surface Pro X Unknown

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